For the kind hand of an affiduous care.
Delightful task! to rear the tender thought,
To teach the young idea how to shoot,
Το pour the fresh inftruction o'er the mind,
To breathe th' enlivening fpirit, and to fix
The generous purpose in the glowing breaft.
Oh, speak the joy! ye, whom the sudden tear
Surprizes often, while you look around,
And nothing strikes your eye but fights of bliss,
All various Nature preffing on the heart:
An elegant fufficiency, content,
Retirement, rural quiet, friendship, books,
Eafe and alternate labour, useful life,
Progreffive virtue, and approving Heaven.
These are the matchlefs joys of virtuous love;
And thus their moments fly. The Seasons thus,
As ceaseless round a jarring world they roll,
Still find them happy; and confenting Spring
Sheds her own rofy garland on their heads :
Till evening comes at laft, ferene and mild;
When, after the long vernal day of life,
Enamour'd more, as more remembrance fwells
With many a proof of recollected love,
Together down they fink in social sleep;
Together freed, their gentle fpirits fly
To scenes where love and bliss immortal reign.
The fubject propofed. Invocation. Addrefs to Mr.
Doddington. An introductory reflection on the mo-
tion of the heavenly bodies; whence the fucceffion of
the seasons. As the face of Nature in this feafon is
almost uniform, the progrefs of the
poem is a defcrip-
tion of a fummer's day. The dawn. Sun-rifing.
Hymn to the fun. Forenoon. Summer infects de-
fcribed. Hay-making. Sheep-fhearing. Noon-day.
A woodland retreat. Groupe of herds and flocks. A
folemn grove: how it affects a contemplative mind.
A cataract, and rude scene. View of Summer in the
torrid zone. Storm of thunder and lightning. A
tale. The storm over, a ferene afternoon. Bathing.
Hour of walking. Transition to the profpect of a
rich well-cultivated country; which introduces a pa-
negyric on Great Britain. Sun-fet. Evening.
Night. Summer meteors.
A comet. The whole
concluding with the praife of philofophy.
ROM brightening fields of æther fair difclos'd,
Child of the Sun, refulgent Summer comes,
In pride of youth, and felt through Nature's depth :
He comes attended by the fultry hours,
And ever-fanning breezes, on his way;
While, from his ardent look, the turning Spring
Averts her blufhful face; and earth, and skies,
All-fmiling, to his hot dominion leaves.
Hence, let me hafte into the mid-wood shade,
Where scarce a fun-beam wanders through the gloom;
And on the dark-green grass, beside the brink
Of haunted stream, that by the roots of oak
Rolls o'er the rocky channel, lie at large,
And fing the glories of the circling year.
Come, Infpiration! from thy hermit-feat,
By mortal feldom found: may Fancy dare,
From thy fix'd ferious eye, and raptur'd glance.
Shot on furrounding Heaven, to fteal one look
Creative of the Poet, every power
Exalting to an ecstasy of foul.
And thou, my youthful Muse's early friend,
In whom the human graces all unite :
Pure light of mind, and tenderness of heart;
Genius, and wisdom; the gay focial fense,
By decency chaftis'd; goodnefs and wit,
In feldom-mee.ing harmony combin'd;
Unblemish'd honour, and an active zeal
For Britain's glory, Liberty, and Man :
O Doddington! attend my rural fong,
Stoop to my theme, infpirit every line,
And teach me to deferve thy juft applause.
With what an awful world-revolving power
Were firft th' unwieldy planets launch'd along
Th' illimitable void! Thus to remain,
Amid the flux of many thousand years,
That oft has swept the toiling race of men,
And all their labour'd monuments away,
Firm, unremitting, matchlefs, in their course;
To the kind-temper'd change of night and day,
And of the seafons ever ftealing round,
Minutely faithful: Such th' all-perfect Hand!
That pois'd, impels, and rules the steady whole.
When now no more th' alternate Twins are fir'd,
And Cancer reddens with the folar blaze,
Short is the doubtful empire of the night;
And foon, obfervant of approaching day,
The meek-ey'd Morn appears, mother of dews,
At first faint-gleaming in the dappled east:
Till far o'er æther spreads the widening glow;
And, from before the luftre of her face,
White break the clouds away. With quicken'd step,
Brown Night retires: Young Day pours in apace,
And opens all the lawny prospect wide.
The dripping rock, the mountain's misty top
Swell on the fight, and brighten with the dawn.
Blue, through the dusk, the fmoaking currents shine;
And from the bladed field the fearful hare
Limps, aukward; while along the foreft-glade
The wild deer trip, and often turning gaze
At early paffenger. Mufic awakes
The native voice of undiffembled joy;
And thick around the woodland hymns arife.
Rous'd by the cock, the foon-clad thepherd leaves
From the keen gaze her lover turns away,
Full of the dear extatic power, and fick
With fighing languishment. Ah then, ye
Be greatly cautious of your fliding hearts:
Dare not th' infectious figh; the pleading look,
Downcaft, and low, in meek fubmiffion drest,
But full of guile. Let not the fervent tongue,
Prompt to deceive, with adulation smooth,
Gain on your purpos'd will. Nor in the bower,
Where woodbines flaunt, and roses shed a couch,
While Evening draws her crimson curtains round,
Truft your foft minutes with betraying Man.
And let th' afpiring youth beware of love,
Of the smooth glance beware; for 'tis too late,
When on his heart the torrent-foftnefs pours.
Then wisdom proftrate lies, and fading fame
Diffolves in air away; while the fond foul,
Wrapt in gay vifions of unreal blifs,
Still paints th' illufive form; the kindling grace;
Th' inticing smile; the modeft-seeming eye,
Beneath whofe beauteous beanis, belying heaven,
Lurk fearchlefs cunning, cruelty, and death:
And still falfe-warbling in his cheated ear,
Her fyren voice, enchanting, draws him on
To guileful shores, and meads of fatal joy.
Ev'n present, in the very lap of love
Inglorious laid; while mufic flows around,
Perfumes, and oils, and wine, and wanton hours; 995 Amid the roses fierce Repentance rears
Her fnaky creft: a quick-returning pang
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